What the hell is slowing down my system?

[fustercluck]

Been having a hell of a time trying to figure this one out the last couple of weeks. Hopefully i can figure it out. Long story short i upgraded my CPU/Mobo (from 3000+ newcastle/754 lanparty mobo to a 146 opteron/Epox 939 mobo) and had a big drop in performance. All of my drivers and bios and everything else you can think of is up to date. No old conflicting drivers anywhere for sure. I reformatted and reinstalled XP after i got my new parts.

So it should be working fine but it's not. Big drop in performance like i said, graphically demanding games like Serious Sam 2 are unplayable, even though it was real smooth with my old system. I ran 3dmark05 today and got 2760, which is quite low for my system. Some of the tests were at 0 fps the whole time, it was ugly. I'm desperately seeking help for this.

I'm out of ideas, except for maybe it's my PSU, which is an Enermax Noisetaker 420w, but that's the same PSU i had with my old system and everything was fine like i said, so i don't think that's the problem, but perhaps the new CPU/Mobo put voltage needs over the edge, i dunno. Any advice?

More info in this thread too if your really curious.

 

[2kfire]

What did you used to get in 3Dmark05 with your old system?
You said you had better performance before. If you are having problems with certain games, you could check to see if there are updates for them. Some games need little updates when using newer processors. Another thing to check is cool and quiet. If it's enabled, try disabling it. Some games don't respond too well to CnQ. Just for kicks, run spyware/adware/virus checks to make sure that's ok. Also, check system manager to see what processes are running and let us know of any that you are unsure about. Good luck!

Edit: Took out part about 3dmark scores. Originally thought ~2800 was okay, but you should be getting ~4000 according to futuremark Online Result Browser

 

[fustercluck]

Haven't ever used 3dmark05 before, but after seeing others results i should indeed be getting more than 2760. I'm spyware free, and my Processes look normal.

 

[fustercluck]

Funk it, i'll just buy a new mobo and see if it works.

 

[fustercluck]

Check this out.

One last try before i fork in more cash to buy a new Mobo. Maybe the problem is the CPU? Please Look at these test results from Sisoft Sandra and tell me something isn't wrong (copy and paste link): http://adaman.homestead.com/files/sisoftcpu.gif

Something's obviously wrong isn't it? Could it be a bad CPU? That seems unlikely.

 

[2kfire]

Maybe your CPU isn't running at the right frequency? Have you checked it using CPU-Z (Link)?

 

[fustercluck]

Bump. Just to verify, the Epox board was the problem. I emailed Epox about my problem and the guy replied:

Dear Sir
The board bios was not ready to support Opteron processor to work.
The new Opteron socket 939 processor was for server and workstation MB used,even our board have add the code,we can not provied it work stable,so we are not suggest user to use it on our MB.

So apparently it's not even compatible with Opterons...who knew. Now I got the ASrock mobo in now and everything is running fine. Had a hell of a time figuring that one out. Now to RMA the Epox board...